The present exemplary embodiment relates to the use of electronic display materials for electric paper applications. It finds particular application in rendering electric paper applications flexible by providing an elastomeric ground plane to electric paper structures, and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that the present exemplary embodiment is also amenable to other like applications.
By way of background, electric paper can be defined as any electronically-addressable display medium that approximates paper in form and function. To be most versatile, electric paper should be light-weight, thin and flexible, and it should display images indefinitely while consuming little or no power. In addition, electric paper should be reusable. One must be able to erase images and create new ones repeatedly. Preferably, electric paper should display images using reflected light and allow a very wide viewing angle.
One way to make electric paper possible using traditional electronic display technology is to completely remove the driving electronics from an electronic display package and use external addressing electrodes to write and erase images. This approach both reduces the per unit cost of electronic paper sheets and enables the use of cheap, flexible plastic films in place of glass plates for packaging. Multiple electronic paper sheets can then be addressed by a single set of external driving electronics, much like multiple sheets of pulp paper are printed on by a single printer.
A known sheet and display system, dubbed Gyricon, is disclosed in various patents and articles, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,854 by Sheridon titled “Twisting Ball Display.” The Gyricon display system is comprised of an elastomeric host layer of approximately 300 micrometers thick which is heavily loaded with rotating elements, possibly spheres, tens of micrometers (e.g. 100 micrometers) in diameter. Each rotating element has halves of contrasting colors, such as a white half and a black half. Each bichromal rotating element also possesses an electric dipole, nominally orthogonal to the plane that divides the two colored halves. Each bichromal rotating element is contained in its own cavity filled with a dielectric liquid. Upon application of an electric field between electrodes located on opposite surfaces of the host layer, the rotating elements will rotate depending on the polarity of the field, presenting one or the other colored half to an observer.
A Gyricon sheet has many of the requisite characteristics of electric paper, namely, bistable image retention, wide viewing angle, thin and flexible packaging, and high reflectance and resolution. U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,945 issued to Sheridon on Feb. 14, 1995, and titled “Writing System Including Paper-Like Digitally Addressed Media and Addressing Device Therefor,” describes an electric paper printing system that employs independent, external addressing means to put images on the Gyricon sheets. The external addressing means is described as a one-dimensional array of electrodes connected, either directly or by wireless technology, to modulating electronics. As the one-dimensional array is scanned across the sheet, modulating electronics adjust the potential at the individual electrodes, creating electric fields between the electrodes and an equipotential surface. An image is created in the sheet according to the polarity of the electric fields.
FIG. 1 shows a representation of a Gyricon sheet comprised of a plurality of bichromal rotating elements cast in a retaining medium 200. It is contained between a first encapsulating layer 202 and a second encapsulating layer 204. The sheet 200 and encapsulating layers 202, 204 are placed in proximity to a supporting back plane 206 that is electrically grounded. An external addressing device 208 connected to a power supply 210 is depicted moving across the sheet in a direction D. Each bichromal sphere 220, 226, 232 is contained in its own liquid-filled cavity 221, 227, 233 within the retaining medium 200. An electric field exists directly between the external addressing device 208 and the equipotential surface 206 that causes the local bichromal sphere 226 to rotate.
To improve performance, different and more recent embodiments of these sheets usually incorporate charge-retaining islands thereon. Such embodiments are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,222,513 B1, issued Apr. 24, 2001 and entitled “Charge Retention Islands for Electric Paper and Applications Thereof.” Turning now to FIG. 2, an exemplary Gyricon sheet of this type is shown. The Gyricon sheet is comprised of the following elements: A sheet 300, a first encapsulating layer 302 patterned with conductive charge-retaining islands 306, and a second encapsulating layer 304 that may or may not be pattered with charge-retaining islands.
Together, the first encapsulating layer 302 and the second encapsulating layer 304 do the following things: indefinitely contain a sheet 300, provide at least one transparent window through which the sheet 300 can be viewed, and provide at least one external surface patterned with charge retaining islands 304 that can be addressed with an external charge transfer device. The first encapsulating layer 302 and second encapsulating layer 304 could take the form of thin plastic sheets that are sealed or fastened around the perimeter of the sheet 300. The second encapsulating layer 304 need not be entirely separate from the first encapsulating layer 302. The second encapsulating layer 304 could simply be an extension of the first encapsulating layer 302, folded over and around the edge of the sheet and then sealed or fastened around the remaining perimeter. The first encapsulating layer 302 and second encapsulating layer 304 could also take the form of a coating, applied by spraying, doctoring, or some other method to hold the contents of the sheet 300.
FIG. 2 also shows a pattern for the charge retaining islands 306 of the outer surface of the first encapsulating layer 302. Charge-retaining islands 306 have square perimeters and are organized in a regular two-dimensional array. Narrow channels 303 of insulating material separate the charge-retaining islands 306. The channels 303 serve to isolate the charge-retaining islands 306, preventing migration of charge laterally across the encapsulating sheet, and should be small with respect to the charge-retaining islands 306, so that the maximum possible area of the display is covered with conductive charge-retaining material.
FIG. 3 simply illustrates a second possible embodiment of a charge-retaining island pattern that utilizes a random array. The top view of the first encapsulating layer 400 shows randomly-shaped and oriented charge retaining islands 404 separated by channels 402. Charge retaining islands 404 must still be relatively large compared to the channels 402, but in such a random distribution, both feature sizes must be much smaller than the pixel size of a displayed image.
The charge retaining islands can be created on or in an encapsulating layer by many means with any conductive material. One technique, which has been tested, creates islands of conductive and transparent Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) on a transparent polyester film. The polyester is coated with a very thin layer of ITO, and then channels are etched in the ITO by photolithographic processes well known in the art. The remaining conductive ITO regions act as charge retaining islands, while insulating channels are created by the underlying polyester.
However, difficulties exist with known electric paper technology. Notably, the limited flexibility heretofore realized in electric paper could be greatly improved. The current electric paper embodiments and associated structures are inherently rigid. The reasons for this rigid nature are clear. In the current embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1-3 above, the electric paper typically has display material, or a media plane (such as the sheets 200 or 300), sandwiched between a ground plane, or encapsulating layer (such as 204 or 304), and an image plane, or encapsulating layer (such as 202 or 302). Both of these encapsulating layers or planes are formed from sheets having high modulus and low elongation properties i.e., resistant to stretching. Accordingly, the electric paper currently known does not possess flexibility resembling that of paper. Moreover, dual-sided imaging is also less desirable given the rigidity of the current embodiments of electric paper.
Therefore, it would be a significant improvement to electric paper technology to increase its flexibility. The embodiments described herein are directed to overcoming the noted deficiencies of this prior technology so that electric paper having the flexibility of real paper can ultimately be realized.